Newsletter 57
THE BHUTAN SOCIETY NEWSLETTER NUMBER 57 PRESIDENT: SIR SIMON BOWES LYON AUTUMN 2015 Summer visit by Society members Annual Dinner A final reminder to those who have not already booked, that this Dinner will be held on Friday 27 November at The Polish Hearth Club, 55 Prince’s Gate, Exhibition Road, London SW7 2PN. Booking forms were enclosed with the last Newsletter. Please complete and return with payment to the Dinner Secretary, Mark Swinbank. Blessed, or cursed, by the hottest July temperature ever recorded in Britain, members of the Society were welcomed by Sir Simon and Lady Bowes Lyon to St Paul’s Walden Bury for a delightfully informal but informative day. The house, in the family of the Society’s President since 1725, is the place where HM the late Queen Mother grew up and was later home to her brother, David (Simon’s father). From its oldest part, the 18th century Adam style north wing, formal tree-lined allées, each leading the eye to a statue or architectural feature, radiate in the classic French goose-foot pattern. Although the show of flowering shrubs from Simon’s trips to the Himalayas were over, it was the perfect time to see a special Bhutanese tree Cornus capitata in full bloom (or, technically, bract). This provided a good backdrop for the group photograph above. After a light lunch next to a gnarled but magnificent old oak, Caroline showed guests round the house, with its original 18th century plasterwork ceilings and some very recognisable royal pieces: a portrait of the Queen Mother (one half of a pair with that of her brother David), and a rocking horse which had been ridden by the young princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, as seen in a photograph from 1932.
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